Steve Kean has denied that Blackburn Rovers will become another Portsmouth and drop rapidly from the Premier League into League One, and insisted he and Venky's, the owners, are at the club for the long term.

Kean's comments came against a backdrop of Rovers being relegated from the Premier League with one game remaining, a leaked email from Paul Hunt, the deputy CEO, which stated Kean should be sacked last December, and reports on Wednesday that Hunt had been dismissed, which the club was unable to confirm.

Asked if Rovers might become another Portsmouth, who have had five different owners and entered administration twice in the past two years, Kean said: "I don't think that has got any chance of happening. I am here for the long term. These are challenging times for the club and the owners, but I believe Venky's are 100% the right owners. I am not going anywhere and neither are the owners.

"I spoke to them on Tuesday. They are obviously disappointed but agree we must now look forward. I've spoken at great length to the owners and will continue to do so over the next six-seven days because the objective is to sit down and build a squad that will help us get straight back up."

Appearing to question whether Venky's public relations has been the best, Kean said: "I think the communication side of it has been tough for them. That's something that isn't my job." The owners have drawn criticism for not offering visible support – they are rarely seen at games – and Kean is unsure when they may come to the club next despite their now facing Championship football next season, saying he did not think Venky's had any immediate plans to visit.

But he defended the Indian company, saying: "The club was in a financial position where I don't think it was the most stable [before they bought it in December 2010]. Now we're in a very stable financial position – what we've not got, we've not got Premiership football which I think is really disappointing."

Hunt's email, from just before Christmas, suggested Kean should be sacked then and that he had lost the dressing room. Asked how he felt about this Kean said: "I've only just found out. I'm disappointed if that's what's actually happened. But I don't really want to go into that."

Pressed that this could only have undermined him at a crucial stage of the season, with Bolton Wanderers having just beaten Rovers and the January transfer window about to open, Kean added: "If that is the case then you knew it's disappointing. From my point of view I think what everybody will see is that I've got full backing of the owners, the full commitment of all the players. The only task now is to finish off the season the best we can and with a positive result [at Chelsea on Sunday] and really build a squad and make sure we can be competitive as we can from the first game."

Kean denied having full knowledge of the email. "I've actually not read it, I know it's out there and people are telling me little bits of it, I'll take time if I ever get my copy of a full version of it," he said before denying he might have expected Venky's to inform him of its existence when they received the email. "No, not really. If obviously it has gone out and they were dismissive of it straight away, then I think that only shows that, you know, what the content was and the detail of that wasn't going to happen. And maybe it wasn't even worth speaking about."

Graham Jones, a local MP, wrote a series of tweets criticising the current regime. Two read: "#brfc Disgraceful sacking of Hunt. On 22 Dec he indicated 2 me the problem at Rovers was the close relationship between Mrs Desai & Mrs Kean"; and: "#brfc A clearer picture is emerging. IMO Paul Hunt was genuine guy. Say as u find. Met him 2x at Ewood. Kean totally runs Rovers IMO."

Regarding the relationship between Kean's wife and Anuradha Desai, who is one of the Venky's group, the Scot said: "We've been over once to India and they made myself and my wife feel very welcome – that's the kind of people they are."

Challenged that one factor in Rovers' demise has been the owners' lack of football knowledge, with Desai previously admitting she had never watched a game, Kean said: "She watches every game. You're asking me a question, do they know anything about football – yes they do."

Kean is now aware that some of his better players could be picked off in the close season. "That won't be a surprise," he said. "That's a reality with any team. I was doing it myself. I was thinking a few weeks ago: 'Who do we think is going to go down and who have they got who could do us?'"

Despite relegation, he is not expecting big cuts. "Obviously there will be cuts but I think what we've go to do is make sure that the money that we get is invested properly into the proper players – we've got other players who are out of contract, Junior Hoillet, Vince Grella, Míchel Salgado, Hérold Goulon."

He also defended the 13 players he has recruited since replacing Sam Allardyce in December 2010. "I could go through the whole lot of them," Kean said. "But if you look at [Radosav] Petrovic it has taken him along time to adapt but I think he will prove a very good player for us. And I could through most of the players and ay the same. Some of the players have not worked out. Bruno Ribeiro hasn't managed to get to the pace of the league at all and that is disappointing."

Meanwhile, Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, defended his organisation's approach to the ownership of Blackburn. He said: "We don't sit here regretting that the owners bought the club. What you do regret for them and the Blackburn fans are the performances of the team that led to them being relegated. But people can't possibly expect us to sit in London running clubs."

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.